Key West – a beautiful, amazing island in Atlantic Ocean at the southern tip of Florida State. It is the southern most point in US. The overseas highway drive to reach the Key West is very famous.
Let’s talk about the drive. From Miami start driving on US1 south which later becomes overseas highway. This is also one of the best panoramic highways in US. From Miami to Key West there are couples of islands (called ‘Keys’). Overseas highway connects them all and most of the drive is on the bridges. There is a half destroyed railroad parallel to this overseas highway. I’m sure it would have taken lots of efforts to build this highway. Nice engineering work! I was surprised that the old railroad was built almost 100 years ago. 
These keys (Key Largo, Tavernier, Islamorada, Marathon, Key West and other smaller keys) are very beautiful which makes the Key area worth visiting for a week. There are lots of water activities to do like snorkeling, scuba diving, kayaking, sailing, parasailing and glass bottom tours. The drive is very beautiful and breathtaking. Imagine a 120 mile drive on the sea! exciting..huh? It gets more exciting when you don’t see anything except sea and an infinite road ahead. It’s good to have the drive on sunny day. It takes time to reach Key West because most of the time the road is single lane. The keys/villages on the way look pretty. Some of them have just one row of the houses near the road and sea on the back side. Just like the typical deer crossing sign on US highways, this highway also has its share of signboards, which says “Alligator Crossing”! Scary isn’t it? We didn’t get chance to see any alligator!
The most amazing stretch on this drive is a ’7-Mile bridge’. It gives the best view during the whole drive so look for the signs when it starts. You can stop the car for view and photography at the side of the bridge.
When you reach Key West, you can feel the Caribbean climate. Even the city looks like any Caribbean city. Most of the scenic places in Key West can be covered walking. It’s a small place! The colorful shops, seafood and Cuban cuisine, motorcycles, people relaxing everywhere, tropical music and beautiful sea shore with green blue water is Key West. The narrow streets with lots of shops selling beachwear, souvenirs, jewelry and Cuban cigars, tourists riding bicycles and scooters, cool breeze bringing smell of sea makes this place super cool. You should not miss the breakfast buffet in Key West which is full of tropical fruits and smoothies along with delicious potato dishes. Southernmost point (from where Cuba is just 94 miles) and butterfly conservatory are good places to be. There are many resorts, hotels and bed and breakfast (B&B) in all the keys. Most of the B&Bs are costlier than a 3 star hotel. But Key West has good B&Bs and people prefer staying there. Overall, lodging is expensive in Key West.
Sailing in a boat near Key West is really memorable experience. We went for a half-day excursion which included kayaking and snorkeling with a company called ‘Danger Charters’. It was a very windy day. On our way to Mangrove islands we saw several dolphins! We had lot of fun with tropical songs, stories from sailors and the delicious pineapple-orange snack. After a journey for an hour and half, the sailing boat was stopped for snorkeling. Nirav and I were the only people doing snorkeling first time among the group of 26 people of age group 25-75! Also I was the only non-swimmer person! Everybody was ready with snorkeling mask and fins and look like they are ready to make a documentary for Discovery. Water was chilling so most of them wore wetsuits. And everybody except me went for snorkeling, and me watching them from the boat
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They were in the water for almost an hour and saw colorful corals and small fishes. Key Largo is the best place to do snorkeling. If you are a good swimmer and experienced snorkeler, you should go there.
The wind turned our kayaking into an adventurous experience 
. We were given tandem kayaks and two leaders from the boat staff to guide all of us. They told us about how mangroves are formed, various birds inhabiting in mangroves and about different fishes. Near mangroves we could see the bottom of the sea! It was really difficult to go ahead against wind on our way back to the sailing boat and our heart started pumping fast! We had to make big efforts to land our kayak near the boat. All our energy was drenched. No more kayaking in windy weather and wavy sea! We couldn’t do parasailing because of wind. I think parasailing must be an excellent experience above the green-blue sea.
On our way back to shore, we expected to see much praised sunset alas the cloudy sky . But return journey was also so much fun. Sun playing hide and seek, beautiful sky, waves in the sea, chips-salsa and nice music and on top of that “can’t see any other boat in the middle of the sea feeling”- what else one needs?
Before we started our return journey to Miami on Overseas Highway, we had ‘Key Lime Pie’ at a shop named ‘Key-Lime-N-More’ on Greene Street. They say the limes grown in keys have different taste and that makes key lime pies special. If you like cheesecake, you would like it.
More information on the keys: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_Keys
B&B :
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotels-g34345-c2-Key_West_Florida_Keys_Florida-Hotels.html
